At the Tippecanoe County Courthouse in Lafayette, a young man looks Thursday at a list of names of offenders who were arrested over Grand Prix weekend.

Written by

Sophia Voravong
svoravong@jconline.com

Come late April, it used to be a common sight at Tippecanoe County Courthouse: A crowd of college-age people, most dressed in their Sunday best, nervously waiting their turn to meet with a judge and deputy prosecutor.

The special session even had an informal nickname - Grand Prix Court, a reference to Purdue University's annual go-kart race and the largest party weekend of the spring semester.

But the number of people arrested, mainly for alcohol-related offenses, has dwindled over the years - from 141 in 2008 to just 45 in 2013. Those people appeared in Tippecanoe County's magistrate court ...